Halle Berry won The Actor for best actress for her role in “Monster’s Ball,”while Russell Crowe was honored with the best actor award for his work in “ABeautiful Mind.” Sir Ian McKellen won the best supporting actor prize forhis role in “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” and HelenMirren was presented with The Actor for best supporting actress for her workin “Gosford Park.”

The SAG membership re-elected Melissa Gilbert the president of the Guild,according to results released on Saturday. Voting for the top job wasconducted last week after the results of November’s election of Gilbert werethrown out. [Eugene Hernandez]

>> DGA: Howard Wins Top Prize; Coolidge Named New Guild President

(indieWIRE/03.11.02) — As it announced the winners of its annual awardsthis weekend, the Directors Guild of America also named a new president.

Ron Howard won the DGA Award for outstanding directorial achievement infeature film. The prize honors his work on “A Beautiful Mind” and makeshim a front runner for this month’s Academy Awards. It was presentedSaturday night in Los Angeles.

Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim won the DGA Award for outstandingdirectorial achievement in documentaries for “Startup.com,” while AlanBall won the award for dramatic series night for the pilot episode of“Six Feet Under.”

Martha Coolidge was elected the first woman president of the DGA onSaturday, she is replacing Jack Shea who announced his resignation at a DGANational Board of Directors meeting the same day. Shea was elected to a rarethird term to lead the DGA’s contract negotiations. Coolidge became theDGA’s first vice president since 1995. Steven Soderbergh was elected toreplace Martha Coolidge as first vice president. [Eugene Hernandez]

(indieWIRE/03.11.02) — The third Director’s View Film Festival ended lastweek closing an edition highlighting new filmmakers and future filmmakersduring the event with two new segments, “The Directors View Independent“and “Directors View International Student Film Festival.”

The event began with a film produced by Fairfield County, New York highschool students entitled, “Romeo & Juliet: Revealed.” Of course there werestars taking part as well with Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder and Richard Donner on stage to introduce the new director’s cut of “Superman.” The filmmaker then received the Joseph L. Mankiewicz Excellence in FilmmakingAward from Danny Glover following the screening.

Director Maggie Greenwald received the Festival’s Dorothy Arzner Prize,honoring her film “Songcatcher” during the five-day event, which featurednumerous screenings of student and independent work.

Peter Callahan‘s “Last Ball” received the festival’s Grand Prize while P.J.Posner won the Best Feature Film award for “The Next Big Thing.” “TheFountain” by Thomas and Joel Moser won for Best Short Film and “Coda” by Kitao Sakuri took First Prize in the student film category. [Brian Brooks]